This Innocent Prisoner Went From Felon To Lawyer Because Someone Believed In Him

This man went from
proving his innocence while in prison to helping others prove theirs as an
attorney.

When Jarrett Adams
was just 17 years old, he was arrested and subsequently wrongfully convicted of sexual assault after
being charged alongside two other boys of engaging in a group assault
during a trip to the University of Wisconsin. While one of the boys was
acquitted, Adams and the other boy were each found guilty and Adams was
sentenced to 28 years in prison.

While it’s sad that
Adams and the other boy were wrongfully convicted, it’s even worse when looking
at why such a wrongful conviction occurred in the first place. The boy who was acquitted
was able to hire a private lawyer, who located an alibi witness and presented
conflicting evidence, but the other two couldn’t afford a lawyer and settled
for court-appointed attorneys.

Adams’ lawyer did
not attempt to contact the alibi witness, nor did they offer any sort of
defense for the accusation. Other than the testimony from the victim, there was absolutely no
evidence linking Adams to the crime, yet he was convicted and sentenced to a
lengthy prison term.

Once Adams was in
prison, he was assigned to a cell with an older man called “Pops” who was
serving a life sentence. Pops overheard Adams talking on the phone about his
innocence and set out to help him overturn the conviction. Adams said that Pops told him,

“I’m never in my
life going home and you’re in here for some racist bull crap, where your
attorney did not do his job–did not call any of your alibi witnesses.” It was
the turning point for Adams, who said he had little hope after several
local appeals were denied.

Credit: NowThis

Rather than fixate
on his case alone, Adams began studying law heavily, inspired by the lack of effort
put into his case and other innocent prisoners like him. Though he had
never been to college, he used his motivation to fuel his in-depth research
into the appeals process and other legal matters through the prison’s library.
Through his research, he found that:

“There were a
lot of young black people in there as a result of bad representation, not
knowing anything about the law, pleading guilty to cases where they shouldn’t
have plead guilty. I’m driven now, because not only do I want to prove my
innocence, but I also want to advocate on behalf of those who I know were just
like me.”

Since he knew he
would have to file a federal appeal for his case, he decided to employ the help
of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, who nearly didn’t accept him because the
odds were slim that they could help him. However, at the request of Kevin
Findley’s students, the co-director of the project, they took Adams’ case for
one reason:

“We believed he
was innocent,” Findley said, and “we thought the evidence
used against him to convict him was horrifyingly weak.”

Thanks to the help
from the Wisconsin Innocence Project and Adams’ active
engagement in how best to fight his appeal, his conviction was overturned
unanimously by three federal judges. After 9 years of serving time for a crime
he didn’t commit, Adams was finally free and filled with ambition to help
others like him. While in prison, he used his knowledge to win the appeals
for 17 internal disciplinary appeals for others.

Credit: Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Since his release,
he started school at a community college and later attended Loyola
Law School in Chicago, where he recently graduated from. Adams has begun using
his degree for good, as he has helped with a new project where the Loyola Dean
David Yellen has been asked to identify cases where the conviction was based on
confessions given after being tortured or abused by law enforcement.

“I would
identify someone in prison who might meet the criteria of having been tortured
and potentially being entitled to a new trial,” Yellen said. “Jarrett would pull the court
document, review in detail all of the background information,” and offer
recommendations.

This project has
started to yield results with the overturning of a 1990 murder conviction, and
Adams has moved on to become a clerk on the Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals, which is the court that ultimately overturned his conviction.

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